Eurostar

34. Mr. Tom Harris:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the provision of direct Eurostar services between Scotland and continental Europe. [36678]

Mr. Jamieson:
It is for Eurostar to decide whether to run Regional Eurostar services from Scotland. The British Railways Board and an independent report for Government from Arthur D. Little have concluded that it

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is highly unlikely that Regional Eurostar services will be commercially viable at least until CTRL Section 2 opens in 2007.

Train Travel (South-East)

35. Mr. Shaw:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment he has made of the demand for train travel in the south-east over the next 10 years. [36679]

Mr. Jamieson:
The Government's 10-year plan assumptions about demand for train travel are set out in "Transport 2010: The Background Analysis".

Antisocial Behaviour

36. Mr. Russell Brown:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what measures he is taking to tackle antisocial behaviour among tenants in the private rented sector. [36680]

Ms Keeble:
The Government are committed to tackling antisocial behaviour across all housing tenures. We are striving to promote a healthier private-rented sector and to do this we recognise the importance of tackling the problem of tenants who behave in an antisocial manner.

Much work has already been done across Government to try and tackle the problem. My own Department, for example, is currently considering responses to our recent consultation paper on the selective licensing of private landlords. This will ensure that in areas where local authorities adopt such a scheme all landlords meet minimum management standards and participate with others in dealing with antisocial tenants. We envisage that these powers will be available alongside the mandatory licensing of houses in multiple occupation, which although it is primarily concerned with targeting properties that are the highest risk to tenants, will also require that the licensee is a fit and proper person.

Road Safety

37. Jean Corston:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what measures he is taking to improve roadside safety outside schools. [36681]

Mr. Jamieson:
There is a wide range of measures available to local authorities to improve safety outside schools. As well as urban safety measures, such as 20 mph zones, they can, for example, designate no waiting areas outside school entrances and provide school crossing patrols. In many areas school travel plans consider safety within the wider context of journeys to and from school.

Housing Authorities

38. Dr. Iddon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many housing authorities have been designated consistently as band I authorities since this designation was introduced. [36682]

Ms Keeble:
Since performance bandings in the Housing Investment Programme were first published in 1995 only one local authorityDerby, has maintained a top performance assessment throughout.

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Planning Green Paper

Mr. Steen:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what representations from environmental groups he has received concerning the planning Green Paper. [36655]

Ms Keeble:
A number of environmental groups have written to their Members of Parliament who have passed on the correspondence to Ministers. In addition we have had more than 3,000 consultation responses of which about 2,000 are from environmental groups or their members. The consultation period on the Green Paper ends on 18 March.

Departmental Overseas Visits

Mr. Chope:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many overseas visits have been undertaken by Parliamentary Private Secretaries in his Department at departmental expense in each of the last four years; and at what cost to public funds. [36819]

Dr. Whitehead [holding answer 25 February 2002]: Parliamentary Private Secretaries supporting Ministers in this Department or in the former Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions have not travelled overseas on Government business in the last four years.

Airline Group

Mr. Clifton-Brown:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when the Government expect to receive the £35 million from the Airline Group for deferred sale proceeds. [37057]

Mr. Jamieson [holding answer 25 February 2002]: The information on the date for payment of the deferred proceeds is commercially confidential.

Local Authority Houses

Jeremy Corbyn:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the investment by English local authorities in new build of homes for rent in the past year; and if he will also list, per housing authority, by (a) joint venture and (b) other resources. [36618]

Ms Keeble [holding answer 25 February 2002]: Available information reported by local authorities about their capital investment during 200001 in the provision of new homes, including support for registered social landlords, has been placed in the Libraries of the House. Information collected by the Department on local authorities' funding of housing capital expenditure does not separately identify joint venture resources. The available information on funding for each local authority in England was provided in my answer of 27 February 2002 [Ref: 36621] to my hon. Friend.

Trunk Roads

Mr. Pickles:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions which roads have been de-trunked in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement on de-trunking. [37230]

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Mr. Jamieson:
A New Deal for Trunk Roads in England published in July 1998 set out the Government's conclusions on its strategic review of the trunk road programme. These included a proposal to de-trunk roads not on the core network so that their management and improvement can be fully integrated with land use planning and the new local transport plans for delivering integrated transport.

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Some 1,900 miles of non-core trunk roads (about 30 per cent.) are in the process of being transferred to local authorities. The roads for which resource have been transferred to local authorities by means of the Special Grants Report and de-trunked as part of this programme are shown in the table.

This excludes trunk roads that were transferred to Transport for London and also any de-trunking that has been implemented as part of improvement schemes.

Non-governmental Organisations

Mr. Sanders:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list non-governmental organisations operating in the south-west region that receive public funds from his Department; and what amount of annual funding they received in the most recent year for which figures are available. [39179]

Dr. Whitehead:
The information is not available in the form requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Air Traffic Control

Mr. Clifton-Brown:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in relation to the New En Route Centre at Swanwick (a) what was the final commissioned cost, (b) how many extra air traffic control officers are employed and (c) what will be the estimated increased capacity at the new centre in each of the next five years; and by what means this will be achieved. [39761]

Mr. Jamieson:
The final commissioned cost of the New En Route Centre at Swanwick was £623 million. Approximately 80 extra air traffic controllers are employed there. Capacity increases at the new centre are planned to match peak demand over each of the next five years. This would be achieved by applying traditional air traffic control workload splitting (sectorisation) and traffic flow simplification (systemisation) improvements.